President Bashar al-Assad flaunted government advances in Syria's seven-year war by filming himself driving to meet frontline soldiers near Damascus, making a video of the journey from the city centre into areas recently recaptured.

Two people on bicycles were injured in another explosion in Austin that may have been triggered by a trip wire, police say, after three parcel bombs killed two people in the Texas capital earlier this month.

Professional hitmen, deadly bullets to the head, mayhem, enormous crowds marching in anger, a government in meltdown, and behind it all, apparently, the ‘Ndrangheta, the ferocious Calabrian mafia. But this is not Italy. This is little Slovakia, a country of just 5.4 million nestled in central Europe, sharing borders with the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Austria.

U.S. President Donald Trump is not considering firing the special counsel investigating Russian election interference, a top White House lawyer says, after a cascade of Trump tweets revived chatter that he may be preparing to get rid of the veteran prosecutor.